Making Progress with Academic Progress Reporting A Customized Tool for Faculty and Advisors

Your Presenters Tyneka L. Harris Current Project Leader for the VP of Student Affairs –14 departments Technical Liaison between the division and the University At DePaul for 6.5 years (previously a Research Analyst) BS & MS in Computer Science Michael Wright Senior Director for Student Records At DePaul for 4.5 years MA in Higher Education Administration

See how a collaborative effort between Student Records, Student Affairs, Information Services and the academic colleges at DePaul University results in a PeopleSoft customization that allows for an integrated approach to student academic progress tracking and advising.

Background Current System –Faculty View –Advisor View –Admin View –Student View Change Management Challenges Without PeopleSoft Questions

Founded in 1898 One of the largest private, largest Catholic Over 25, 000 active students (16,000 undergraduate) 10 schools/colleges 10-week quarter system More Facts:

BACKGROUND Progress Reporting Before PeopleSoft

Specialized Populations Only –Multicultural Student Affairs (online application) –Program for students with Learning Disabilities (online/paper form) –Athletic Academic Advising (paper form) Students gave consent for academic tracking Staff conducted individualized interventions

Duplicate Requests to Faculty (student crossover) Decentralized Report Data Isolated Advising Methods Cumbersome Reporting View (1 page per student )

Student Affairs (2006-Present) Athletic Academic Advising Multicultural Student Affairs PLuS Program (learning disabilities) Office of Student Records Information Services

Academic Affairs (2009-Present) College of Commerce College of Communications College of Computing & Digital Media College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences College of Health & Science School for New Learning School of Education School of Music The Theatre School First-Year Academic Success (FYAS) Honors Program Office of Academic Advising Support Student Affairs (2006-Present) Athletic Academic Advising Multicultural Student Affairs PLuS Program (learning disabilities) Office of Student Records Information Services

Defined report structure for all departments Submitted a request to Information Services Worked with IS for 1 year to develop a custom system for Student Affairs (version 1.0) Costs: time & effort of staff involved Other areas heard about the APR and asked to join

Submitted a request to Information Services –APR System version 2.0 built for Student Affairs & Academic Affairs Current system since Fall 2009 Core Team drives system requirements Advisor Group (~ 50) System Administrator (1) Inbox ( – 2 admins)

CURRENT SYSTEM Academic Progress Reporting in PeopleSoft

One Request per Student to Faculty –Faculty receive one request for students in multiple groups Centralized Report Data –All submitted data stored in University System (PS) –Reporting on the overall system possible Simplified Reporting View –One line per student view reporting (entire roster in one view) –Faculty can flag students they are concerned about Integrated Advising Methods –Quarterly Advising Meetings –Advising Materials shared via Group site –Hierarchy for advising (primary vs secondary contact)

Weeks 1-3 of the Quarter APR advisor meeting FYI Communication sent to all faculty and deans All populations added to their respective student group in the system Weeks 4-6 of the Quarter Application Live APR invitation and reminder s go out to faculty with students in the system Department & College Staff review submitted reports & reach out to students Students receive s if they have reports to view Application closes at the end of week 6 Week 8 of the Quarter Thank you to all faculty and deans

Completed Report Stats Reports per term: ~7000 Students per term: ~4000 (1/4 UGRD popn.) Faculty per term: ~620 Classes per term: ~ 1050 On average, a report is receive for about 50% of the courses.

Reporting Predictive Studies (APR grade vs Final Grade) Increase Student Participation Initiatives to get students to respond Grant students access to reports from faculty

Final grades earned typically equal to or a grade higher than grade reported at the midpoint (80% of the time) for those APRs with midpoint grades indicated.

Extracted from APR report by Jaclyn Cameron, Institutional Research & Market Analytics

FACULTY VIEW Academic Progress Reporting

If Faculty have students to report on, the APR icon appears Faculty View

Once in the system, A tutorial can be accessed. Faculty can use student photos to jog their memory Faculty View

Removes ‘Missed Classes’ Column Faculty View

Faculty don’t have to submit for all students Faculty View

#Naspatech15: Student Affairs Technology Conference | October 27-29, 2011 | Newport, Rhode Island Faculty View

ADVISOR VIEW Academic Progress Reporting

Search for reports from faculty based on multiple criteria Immediately find students that have been “flagged” by their instructors for academic reasons Advisor View

The results from the search page allow advisors to know whether their student has another advisor at the University and whether the student has been contacted by that person. Advisors can sort by letter grade to find students who are reported as having C or below at the mid-point of the quarter PDFs and excel spreadsheets of data can be downloaded for sharing and analysis Advisor View

Advisors can Communicate with advisees, primary academic advisors and faculty through the tool Advisor View

Advisors can save a PDF of the report as a document Advisor View

Advisors can Write and share notes on students Track their attempted and successful contact of students

Advisor View

ADMIN VIEW Academic Progress Reporting

Process Student Groups –Add students to student groups by predefined criteria APR Schedule Set-up – System availability & communications APR Send Process – Schedule APR communications Student Group Hierarchy – Define primary group affiliation Admin View

Admin can set the trigger dates for the system every term Admin View

PS Mailer messages Admin View

STUDENT VIEW Academic Progress Reporting

Student View

Advisors: APR advisor meeting, APR address Faculty: APR address Core Team considers and creates list of possible enhancements New Request form submitted for enhancements IS & SR work together to perform system enhancements Enhancements are tested by Core Team, Advisors and Faculty Enhancements are made live by next possible Go-Live date

Defining faculty report format Identifying advisors within academic areas Troubleshooting with faculty Establishing regular reports/metrics Encouraging more faculty to report Encouraging students to respond

Know what’s possible in-house Choose a tool/solution that is scalable Communicate the Initiative (retention implications) Partner with Advisors in Academic Affairs Don’t collect more than you can act on Constantly collect feedback from stakeholders Study Metrics (midterm vs final grades, retention rates)

Tyneka L. Harris –Project Leader –Office of the VP for Student Affairs –DePaul University – Michael Wright –Senior Director for Student Records –